More Pictures

Yesterday, I got my birthday order from SB&B. It had everything except for my Pomegranate GAST. These LHN charts were calling out to me the loudest. If I could spend like crazy, I would probably buy them all. :) For this order, I got:
Dear Diary - Abigail Winslow
Lavender Hill
Thread Gathering Kit
Cappuccino
Frappuccino
Home Sweet Home by CCN
All Heart by Elizabeth's Designs


I also got some piecemaker needles and a black scissor sheath for my Solingens. I also got lots of floss! (More to sort and bag and inventory, but I don't mind.) I got the whole Cottage Colours set, a whole bunch of Crescent Colours, some GAST, a skein of WDW, and two of the new DMC Color Variations.

I am very happy with what I got. The CC floss are soooo pretty!

******

Last night, T was craving dessert so I made pumpkin pie. Yes, a few days early for Thanksgiving, but why wait for good dessert when I can have it now? I tried fluting my edges but it wasn't turning out right. I knew all I had to do was pinch the pastry using my thumb and forefingers but it just looked horrible. Finally, I checked how to do it online. I forgot one crucial part. You have to tuck the edges! Thus making the edge two layers of pastry, making it thicker, making it be able to "stand" and pinchable. :) Here are the results:



The fluted edges look so much better than crimping it with a fork. My plating skills needs improvement. Look at that mess! I have to confess that I took two pictures of the slice. The first slice was on a red plate and didn't show off the color of the pie too well, so I sliced a piece for me and used the blue plate. LOL.

Four Years Ago

Four years ago, on Saturday March 8, T & I were married in the little town hall of Middletown, NY. :) I cannot believe that it has been 4 years already. Sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday.

Fast forward to present time, I am now 25 weeks and 4 days into my pregnancy. Here are some pics taken last Tuesday.





Talk about a big belly! I knew I was big, but I didn't realize just how big until we took pictures. I think I would like to start taking weekly pictures to see just exactly how much I grow. I went from wearing size 0-1 jeans to now wearing size 7 (juniors). My pants that we purchased 2 months ago do not fit me anymore. Its really insane considering that when we went shopping, a size 3 would've fit me just fine. I think its time to just go ahead and purchase maternity pants that have the belly panel. My mom sent me a pair of maternity capris with the panel and they are soooo comfy! So much better than regular pants.

As for cravings, I am completely over the strawberry milkshake phase as well as the chicken phase. Right now, its beef, beef, and more beef. Oh! I love chocolate again too! I'm actually craving it. What I really miss is coffee. I haven't craved it in months, but now all I want to do is go to Starbucks and get a Venti Raspberry Soy Latte. Yummmmm.

In other news, my order from SB&B finally shipped today! Yay! I should get it on Monday. I *cannot* wait any longer! I'm so excited to see all my new stuff. :)

Cravings

I think my Japanese food craving has finally passed. I had it for lunch AND dinner on Friday, lunch on Monday and lunch again today. My meal was great but as soon as I finished it, I knew the craving was gone. It was the same feeling I had after I finished my last strawberry milkshake. I can't really describe it, I just know it.

***************************

I've been playing around with my blog. I wanted to change the whole look of it, but I couldn't find one that I liked. Well, no. That's a lie. I really like Jo's blog. But that's Jo's blog, not mine. I want to have something that screams ME or at the very least, something I really, really like. So in the meantime, I've been playing around with my sidebar. I moved the blinkies to the bottom of the page, added a list of my March goals and I will highlight my 3 most recent finishes. If that doesn't motivate me to stitch more, I don't know what will.

***********************

Last night, I was feeling quite productive so I decided to inventory my stash. I decided to tackle the easiest bit and started with my non DMC floss collection. I have more than I thought I did! LOL. I just used Excel to make life easier. Each company had its own spreadsheet (NN, Caron, WDW, etc). Each spreadsheet has columns for code, color, number of skeins, type (silk, cotton), and notes. Under notes I would put in if its a full or partial skein. Next step will be to organize my DMC collection. I'm supposed to have a full set in bobbins, but I can never find anything. I also have my extra skeins in various bags and bins. I really need to organize that. I have decided to put my extra skeins in Floss-A-Way bags. I have less than 100 bags here right now, I have another 100 that I ordered. I will buy more as soon as I can and get organized. I still haven't decided how to inventory/catalog and organize my charts yet. Any ideas?

March Goals

I have never set monthly stitching goals. A bunch of friends at the Needle & Thread BB do it and I thought I would give it a try.

1. Finish Project X (my model) - I'm almost done and I was SURE that I had an extra skein of 796 and now I can't find it. Must go to the store tomorrow and get the skein (among other things) and finish this one up.

2. Finish The Purple Project (Long Dog's The Token) - I'm so close to the end. I think it will be easy to finish it this month.

3. Stitch and "finish" a Spring Ornie

4. Stitch and "finish" a Christmas Ornie

5. Start stitching on A Touch of Wilderness for DH (I'm just waiting for my order to get shipped).

I think those are good goals and that I can actually do them.

**************************

In other news today, we tried a new-to-us Sushi bar at lunch. Two of the guys at worked passed by this little place called Sakura (surprise, surprise) and decided to try it. We tried looking them up, but they don't have a website. So instead of getting stuck on just getting California rolls, I decided to call and I asked them to fax over a menu to our office. Yay! They had teriyaki lunch boxes! Whoohoo! I have been dying for some terriyaki. The lunch box had a good amount of rice and beef, two slices of Japanese omelette, 4 California rolls, an assortment of tempura (2 shrimp, 1 potato, 1 broccoli, 1 onion) and a salad with miso dressing. It was soooooooo good. I loved everything except for the salad. It tasted very sour to me and not in a good way. But I was so happy.

In fact, I was so happy that DH and I ordered food from there for dinner. :) We got so much food! I had no idea that the dinner boxes would have that much more than the lunch boxes. The dinner boxes came with 8 California rolls each. We got the beef teriyaki and the chicken teriyaki. We also tried the AAC roll (avocado, asparagus and cucumber). It was amazing. We also got the shrimp tempura roll, more California rolls and the Sakura rolls (it had smoked fish, avocado, crab and other yummy stuff). No, we did not eat everything, but I know what we're having for lunch tomorrow. :)